Single Family Residential is the largest land use
category in Marine covering 849 acres, 37 percent of the
total. Marine has rural and urban residential districts,
and each of these districts is divided into a standard
and a St. Croix district. The St. Croix districts occur
between Highway #95 and the St. Croix River.
Marine’s housing stock is in good condition and is
predominantly low density. The Stugas Townhouse
development, built in 1996-1997, provides 20 units of
medium density housing on 12.4 acres of land in northern
Marine.

Parks and Recreation is the third largest land use
category, after residential and vacant, covering 628
acres, 27 percent of the total. William O’Brien
State Park makes up the majority of this total with
approximately 584 acres. A small park area is located
west of the Central Business District along Highway 95.

The commercial district is located at the historic
core of Marine, around the intersection of Fourth Street
and Maple Street, and at Marine’s Landing on the
shore of the St. Croix River, north of the Central
Business District. This land use covers approximately two
acres, and contains no vacant land.

Light Industrial

Only one acre of land currently has a light industrial
use. This parcel is located west of the railroad tracks
and consists of four furnace oil storage tanks.

Public / Semi-Public

This land use covers 83 acres, 3.6 percent of the
total. This category includes Christ Lutheran Church,
Oakland Cemetery, Marine Elementary School, City Hall,
the community drainfield, and a Kiwanis Club camp.

Preservation Area

The Mill Reservation preserves the site of the sawmill
next to the St. Croix River at the center of Marine.

Marine has a total of 748 acres of vacant land. All of
this land is located in Marine’s four residential
zoning districts. These zoning districts are Single
Family Rural, St. Croix Rural, Single Family Urban, and
St. Croix Urban. Some of the vacant land is constrained
by wet soils, steep slopes, shallow bedrock, and/or low
percolation rates.

The following paragraphs contain a development
capacity evaluation for Marine. The development capacity
was determined for each zoning district in two ways to
allow for variability caused by environmental development
constraints. First, the development capacity was
determined by applying each zoning districts’
density and minimum lot size standards to the gross
acreage of vacant land minus land with wet soils in each
district. Second, the development capacity was determined
by applying each zoning district’s density and
minimum lot size standards to the acreage of vacant land
minus the land with development constraints in each
district. Development constraints include wet soils,
steep slopes, shallow bedrock, and low percolation rates.

The development capacity was determined as a range for
two reasons. First, in the Single Family Rural District,
at least 50 percent of the subdivided land must be
preserved as open space and the houses are clustered.
This provides the opportunity to build on the least
constrained land and preserve the rest as open space.
Second, in the urban districts, lots that are constrained
so that it is not possible to locate a septic tank and
drainfield on the lot may have the potential of
connecting to the community sewer system. In locations
where sewer hook-up is possible, development potential
may exist.

Marine has 636 acres of vacant land in the Single
Family Rural Zoning District. This district has a maximum
lot density of one lot per five acres based on the total
gross acreage of the property. All development in this
district is required to be clustered, and at least 50
percent of the subdivided land must be dedicated to
permanent open space.

Depending on the range of environmental constraints
used to determine vacant acreage, up to 82 to 106 houses
could be added to this district. Most of the vacant land
is located in western Marine. Jackson Meadows, a planned
unit development that was approved in 1998, will be
located west of the railroad tracks and will consist of
64 clustered houses and three peripheral lots on 336
acres of land.

Currently, some other developable parcels do not have
access from streets. Some lots are constrained by steep
slopes, wet soils, shallow bedrock, and low percolation
rates. Most of the constrained lots have enough buildable
land to allow clustered development.

Single Family Urban

Marine has 32 acres of vacant land in the Single
Family Urban Zoning District. This district is located on
the west side of Highway 95 and has a minimum lot size
requirement of 30,000 square feet. Depending on the range
of environmental constraints used to determine vacant
acreage, up to 10 to 25 houses could be added to this
district. The urban zoning districts contain a
substantial number of lots with land ties to parcels too
small to develop, therefore, the amount of development
potential this district has may be less than what has
been calculated.

The vacant parcels without environmental constraints are
located in the northwestern part of the platted area of
Marine. Development in this area may require the
extension of Chestnut and/or Sixth Street. Other lots
that have environmental constraints may be able to be
developed by extending the community sewer system to
these lots.

The St. Croix Rural Zoning District is located in the
northern and southern parts of Marine, east of Highway
95, and has a minimum lot size requirement of 2.5 acres.
Marine has 29 acres of vacant land in this district.
Depending on the range of environmental constraints used
to determine vacant acreage, up to zero to three houses
could be added to this district. Lots are constrained by
wet soils, steep slopes, shallow bedrock, and/or low
percolation rates. Some of the lots with environmental
constraints may be able to be developed by extending the
community sewer system to these lots.

The St. Croix Urban Zoning District is located north
and south of the Central Business District and east of
Highway 95. Marine has 51 acres of vacant land in this
district. The minimum lot size requirement is one acre.
Depending on the range of environmental constraints used
to determine vacant acreage, up to zero to 10 houses
could be added to this district. This is a high end
number because small parcels with land ties are included.
Lots are constrained by wet soils, steep slopes, shallow
bedrock, and/or low percolation rates. Some of the lots
with environmental constraints may be able to be
developed by extending the community sewer system to
these lots.

Based on the preceding analysis, Marine could add up
to 92 to 144 houses before Marine would be fully
developed. Sixty-seven of these houses are currently
being developed in the Jackson Meadows development in
western Marine. With the completion of Jackson Meadows,
the remaining forecast will be up to 25 to 77 houses.
Some development of vacant land in Marine would require
extending roads and considering the extension of the
community sewer system.

The 1990 U.S. Census found there to be 283 housing
units in the city. City records show an additional 29
building permits for new homes were approved between 1990
and 1997. During this time, six homes were demolished
with four of these being rebuilt. Based on these data,
there are approximately 306 housing units in the City.

Housing Stock Age

The following table shows that over half the structures
in the City were built before 1950. The table includes
the six structures that were demolished since 1990
because the age of these structures was not identified.
Many of the older structures are located in the older,
more urbanized part of the City adjacent to the St. Croix
River. New housing has been built primarily in the
northern and southern portions of the City.

The following table shows a 32 percent rate of growth
in the median value of a home in Marine from 1990 to
1997. Without significant new growth, this is a
reflection of appreciation of existing housing stock.